Becoming God: Path of the Christian Mystic – 4

Becoming God: Path of the Christian Mystic

By Elizabeth Clare Prophet

This video clip is a preview of the 3-DVD set, 4.5 hours, $24.95 #DVG10004.

Here is the transcript of this YouTube video “Becoming God: The Path of the Christian Mystic – Part 4” excerpted from the DVD “Becoming God: Path of the Christian Mystic,” by Elizabeth Clare Prophet.

So, before we enter the world of the Christian mystics, let's look at the etymology of the word mysticism.

The word mysticism is thought to be derived from the Greek word meaning to close the eyes or lips. It was first used in connection with the Greek mystery religions. The “mystics” who were those, were those who promised to keep secret the rituals of their religion.

Neoplatonic philosophers who later applied the word mystical to their doctrines taught their pupils to shut their eyes to the external world and go within, in profound contemplation, to discover mystical truths.

The reason, I believe, they taught their pupils to close their eyes and go within was to develop their spiritual senses, including inner sight and hearing.

Closing their eyes meant they had to go to a plane of consciousness apart from the concrete mind. They had to go beyond the intellectual mind to levels of both the Superconscious and the subconscious where the soul has direct awareness of her identity in God beyond the confines of the physical/intellectual self. The Neoplatonists would take their pupils to the compartment of being where the soul speaks to God and where God speaks to the soul.

Philo, the Jewish religious thinker and contemporary of Jesus, used the term mystical to refer not to secret rituals but to the hidden meaning of God's word.

The early Greek Church Fathers Clement and Origen of Alexandria applied the word mystical to the allegorical interpretation of scripture.

Origen believed there could be no real understanding of the scriptures without communion with God. How right he was and how often we hear pastors and priests who have no communion with God and therefore no understanding of the scriptures.

For Origen, interpretation of the scriptures was a religious experience. Thus Origen was the first to use the word mystical to describe a way of knowing God.

In later centuries, Christians used the word mystical to indicate the hidden and sacred presence of Christ in the scriptures, sacraments and liturgy.

The influential writings of the fifth- or sixth-century writer known as Pseudo-Dionysius established the word mystical as part of the Christian vocabulary. He didn't just use it to discuss the interpretation of scripture. He also encouraged the exercise of “mystical contemplation”–leaving behind “the senses and the operations of the intellect” in order to gain union with God.

Eventually the term “mystical theology” was used in the Church to denote knowledge about God gained through contemplation.

There are several elements common to the mystical paths of the major world's religions.

Among the elements I will be discussing today are,

one, the mystics' pursuit of the indwelling Presence of God;
two, their pursuit of direct intercourse with God through prayer and contemplation; and,
three, their pursuit of a threefold path of ascent to God.

What did the mystics mean when they talked about the indwelling Presence of God?

What does Saint Germain mean when he talks about that Presence?

Well, the mystics believed that the soul is meant to be the dwelling place of God and a partaker of the Divine nature.

In Christian mysticism this teaching goes back to the words of Jesus and the apostles. At the Last Supper Jesus promised his disciples: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.”

Keeping the words of Jesus in our heart and ultimately the Word that he was, the I AM THAT I AM, makes us one with him.

This is Jesus' promise, that the Father, the Mighty I AM Presence, and the individual Holy Christ Self will descend and take up their abode in our temple here and now while we are in embodiment, if we keep Jesus' words, if we maintain that spirit of the living flame of love burning in our hearts, if we express the compassion of Christ to all.

This can happen to you more quickly than you realize when you determine no more to behave after the carnal mind but after the Christ.


Chriatian Mysticism Books and eBooks

Becoming God The Path of the Christian Mystic Kindle Edition by Elizabeth Clare Prophet

by Elizabeth Clare Prophet

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